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BUTCH COMEGYS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Scranton resident Siobhan Casey lives with Type 1 diabetes, and has become a vocal self-advocate and community volunteer through her newly established support group, Type One Love.

Siobhan M. Casey suffered for a long time from myriad symptoms of an ailment no doctor could pinpoint.

As upward of 45 pounds melted away from the petite Scranton resident’s frame, they blamed her youth and stress, suggesting depression or an eating disorder were at play. When she experienced loss of vision, fainting spells and a rash during her junior year at John Carroll University, she was forced to take off time from school to come home and recuperate.

“That was really hard for me, because I was straight-As, a type-A person,” Casey, 30, said. “I was not me anymore.”

Following misdiagnoses, she finally found relief when a doctor recognized her as a Type 1 diabetic. The disease has no definitive cause and can manifest at almost any age, Casey noted. The ruling came as a shock since no one else in her family had diabetes.

But as she learned to live with it, she gained valuable insight into her character and instincts.

“If you think something is wrong, believe in intuition. Believe in yourself, and I don’t just mean your dreams,” Casey said. “I had a phobia of needles, so it was a huge learning curve, but it showed me how self-reliant I could be.”

Her life resumed as she finished her education at University of Scranton, where she earned a degree in English writing with a minor in history. She also went on to receive a master’s degree in fine arts in creative writing (with a focus on poetry) from Chatham University.

In December, Casey published a chapbook of her poetry, “Three Fourths of a Dream,” which she said draws upon her experiences and observations as well as offers words on courage, resilience and looking at everyday things as beautiful.

Casey still lives with resulting complications from her diabetes (“It’s like dominoes,” she explained), including lasting nerve pain and a more recent diagnosis of a neurological disorder, but she finds the silver lining in her problems.

“It’s taught me to appreciate the good days,” she said. “Once I started doing things purely because I loved them, I felt so incredibly alive. Before I was living, but I’ve become so much more of an extrovert. It totally changed my whole outlook.”

Now, she works to share this optimism and her hard-won life lessons with others living with Type 1 and “invisible” diseases through a new art therapy-based support group she created called Type One Love. Casey plans to hold twice-monthly meetings in the Community Room at Lackawanna County Children’s Library, Scranton, that will focus on camaraderie and finding healing through creative outlets. The dates and times will vary as she finds her footing as the facilitator and gauges public interest, but she already has plenty of volunteers who pledged to contribute in various ways.

Her organizing partner, Janina Peters, is a certified art therapist who will put her skills to use in a practical way, medical students have offered to come in to share education, and artist friends said they’ll lead group art projects. Type One Love accepts members 7 and older and welcomes their family members, too.

Each meeting will have guests pull a selection from a jar of affirmations and a jar of challenges, and group members will discuss issues they face in everyday life plus solutions.

“You’ll network; you’ll get good advice and learn to love yourself, even when you’re in so much pain and people pull away or reject you,” Casey said. “You’ll really find the right people. Feeling alone and mental isolation is such a huge problem.”

She hopes to turn the support group into a mentorship program and find funding for members to help offset the expenses associated with testing supplies. Eventually, she aspires to elevate Type One Love into a nonprofit.

These days, Casey works as a nanny for a few local families and also is a freelance writer (she formerly worked as an editor for various publications, including Weave magazine). She feels the support group represents the culmination of her work and education, and she hopes to use her training in both to help others.

“I think this could be the most fulfilling thing we could do, to end the separation between the inner life and outer life,” Casey said, pointing to the way many diabetics hide their symptoms or self-care needs. She also considers it a form of activism.

“To make people feel whole, I’d feel whole,” she said. “This would be one more way to show people are speaking out against discrimination, and to have unity.”

At home: She lives in downtown Scranton with her cat, Zooey. She is the daughter of Mary and Tim Casey and has three siblings, John, Tim and Kate.

At work: She is a nanny for local families, taking care of charges who range from infancy to a 14-year- old with special needs. She also is a freelance writer.

Inspirations: Her sister, an oncology nurse; her creative mentor, Barbara Piazza; her friend, Garry Melville, who encouraged her to start her support group; other artists and female writers; the outdoors; and poet Ada Limón

Aspirations: To bolster her support group into a successful nonprofit; to create awareness, teach self esteem and self-reliance; publish a full book of poetry; kayak down the Susquehanna River; and get Zooey to hike on a leash

Aversions: Disingenuousness, closed-mindedness, an unwillingness to learn and when people don’t finish sentences

Quotes: “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” — Rumi; and “One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel alright.” — Bob Marley

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